Borneo – the ongoing massacre of Orang-utans.

Orang-utans are kind gentle creatures. They are harmless. The last place they have now is Borneo. Yet since 1990 100,000 of these poor gentle creatures have been mindlessly killed – over 50% of them are gone.

Last week a poor adult orang-utan was found dying with 150 airgun wounds. He’d been repeated shot and left to die a horrible death.

Now their habitat is being destroyed for palm oil and they are driven out and left to starve. Those that are left are being hunted for food. When they venture into the farming areas they are killed.

These apes are one of our closest relatives. It is illegal to kill them but the laws are not enforced.

To preserve these beautiful creatures we need to do three things:

a. Maintain the dwindling forests.

b. Educate the population not to hunt and kill them and that they are gentle creatures who do nobody any harm.

27 thoughts on “Borneo – the ongoing massacre of Orang-utans.”

This might have been a news item today, but conservation NGO’s have been shouting from the rooftops for years that Indonesia and Malaysia have not done enough to protect habitat for Orangutans, Sumatran Tigers, Rhinos and Pygmy elephants. The Leuser Ecosystem in Aceh Province of Indonesia has been clearcut by Palm Oil companies (often illegally) and ignored the plight of its most endangered creatures. The Leuser system is also a peat forest system, the ground acting as a giant sponge to keep the amazing variety of forest alive in a rather drought prone region. Without the forest, the land is degraded and row upon row, mile upon mile, of oil palms put in its place. They require huge watering systems, taking much of the stored potable water away from an already delicate balance. People have been displaced (or run off their land) threatened with violence. Certainly some activists campaigning against the destruction of the forest have disappeared without trace. It is an uphill fight for any organisation trying to legally challenge the oil palm companies. https://www.arcusfoundation.org/stories-of-impact/great-apes/conservationists-challenge-ruling-fragile-indonesia-ecosystem/

I can imagine the giant oil palm companies (Wilmar, etc), will be the first to complain when a weather disaster floods their plantations and destroys the plants. What they have done to Indonesia and parts of Malaysia is nothing beyond a tradgedy. If you remember, their greed to clear more land caused the dreadful peatforest fires in 2016 got out of control and could be seen clearly from satellite pictures. Over 100,000 people became sick from the awful haze that they created. Countless animals perished.

Thanks for that Colette. You put the flesh on the bones. I know I’ve been going on about it for years. travelling around the world and seeing the devastation first hand is really distressing. I put it in my book Anthropocene Apocalypse. I was so angry. It goes on apace and we are helpless to stop it. There is madness at work. It’s pure greed.

We need more action and less talk. I hear of stories of endangered animals every day. Spread the word on what you do and what others can do to not contribute to the mess we are in. Here is what I do;
I recycle, I reuse everything I can. I buy second hand clothing so they get a diverted from the landfills and I taking really good care of what I own so it will last.
I never buy palm oil products, I avoid plastic covering on my produce which is really expensive in Canada. I use recycle bags never take plastic bags at grocery stores.
I have been vegan since “93. I choose not to have children. I plant trees, write stories about wildlife and conservation to try to spread awareness. I bike where I can.

More power to you Kelly. If only everyone did the same. You put me to shame.
But I still think that it is governments that have to act! They are the ones who can put a stop to deforestation, overfishing, trophy hunting, poaching, overpopulation, pollution and extinctions. We need strong legislation and enforcement.

People are sheep I agreed they do as they are told, But no government is going to sacrifice going down in history, as the one that choice, environmental change over big business prosperity.
The people ( the many) will get more done by adjusting their own lives for environmental change. Economic trends are followed by business not created by them.